The Climax, 



}. HOMffiOPATHIG DOSE OF TROTH, 

WHICH, IF TAKEN ACCORDING TO DIRECTIONS, WILL OURE 
THE WORST CASE OF POVERTY. 



BY CHARLES SIDNEY, 



^<r^ 



Printed for the Author. 

1SS5. 



Copyrighted, li 



Pre^face. 



"Bear not false witness, slander not, nor lie; 
Truth is the speech of inward purity." 

In writing these pages, I have endeavored to 
adhere strictly to the truth, and deal with nothing 
btit what appeared to me to be self-evident facts, 
regardless of the opinions of any school of phil- 
osophy, religious sect, or political party. 

Though many may honestly differ with me, 
yet, if any are offended, I think it is their 
fault. If a small dose of truth causes irritation, 
it only shows that it does not agree with their 
usual diet. 

Charles Sidney. 

Brooklyn, August, 1885. 



HE Blimax. 



** / a VI not mad^ most noble Fes t us, but speak 
forth the words of truth a?id soberness." 

We are on the ragged edge of ruin ; the brink 

of Hell. We cannot turn back ; our momentum 

is carrying us onward. Inactivity is death; 

shall we give a grand leap and clear the chasm, 

or go down to the bottomless pit ? 

" We are slaves ; the bright sun rises to its 
course and lights a race of slaves ; it sets, and 
its last beam falls upon a slave." 

We cannot go on preaching liberty and hold- 
ing men in bondage — preaching Christianity and 
practising robbery. Bribery, injustice and licen- 
tiousness fill the land ; violence and fraud are 
openly practised; our legislative halls are cen- 
tres of corruption. Our judges are modern Jeff- 
ries, ready to sell out to the highest bidder. 
The fact that different judges render different 
decisions, on nearly every lawsuit that goes the 
rounds of the courts, proves that they are frauds 
or fools. The presumption is that they care 
more for their pockets than they do for the law. 
The red flag of the Commune, that means 
anarchy and destruction, is already flying in 
this " Land of the brave and home of the 



6 



free," at the head of hordes of emigrants, brought 
here under contract, and driven to madness by 
the oppression of our millionaire monopolists — 
the advocates of high tariff for the '' protection 
of American labor," in order to reduce the wages 
of American laborers to the starvation point. 
The struggle for existence is more and more in- 
tense ; wages are diminishing, and the difficulty 
in finding employment is increasing. Like the 
distant roar of Niagara, the moans and groans 
of human beings driven to the verge of insanity 
by enforced idleness fill the air. 

T. DeWitt Talmage, in recent sermons de- 
livered at the Tabernacle in Brooklyn, said: " In 
this country the middle classes, who have held 
the balance of power, and upon whom the nation 
has depended as mediators between the two ex- 
tremes, are diminishing, and at the same ratio 
we will soon have no middle class ; for all the 
people will be very rich or very poor, and the 
country be divided into princes and paupers, 
palaces and hovels. The two great antagonistic 
forces are closing in upon each other. The 
movements on the part of strikers and dynamiters 
are only skirmishes before the general engage- 
ment. You may prophesy that this trouble, like 
an angry child, will cry itself to sleep ; but that 
cannot suppress the fact that it is the mightiest, 
darkest, most terrific threat of this century. The 
laboring classes will soon have exhausted what 
little prosperity they had accumulated under a 



better state of things, and then all the enact- 
ments of legislatures, all the constabularies of 
the cities, and all the army and navy of the 
United States^ cannot keep them quiet. There 
are 65,000 working girls in New York and 
Brooklyn, and across the sunlight comes the 
shadow of their death groan. It is not such a 
cry as comes from those who are suddenly hurled 
out of life, but a slow, grinding, horrible wast- 
ing away. Gather them before you and look 
into their faces, pinched, ghastly, hunger stricken. 
See that premature stoop in the shoulders ! 
Hear that dry, hacking^ merciless cough! Many 
of them have had no breakfast, except the crumbs 
that were left over from the night before. * * * 
You want to see how Latimer and Ridley appeared 
in the fire. Look at that woman and behold a 
more horrible martyrdom, a hotter fire, a more 
agonizing death." 

Poverty, and the fear of poverty, are the prin- 
cipal causes of crime. The holding of land as 
private property is the principal cause of poverty 
in every civilized community. No sane man 
can maintain an idea so absurd and unjust, as 
that one of the human family has a better right 
to land than another. 

Herbert Spencer says (Social Statics, chapter 
IX.) : "Passing from the consideration of the 
possible to that of the actual, we find yet further 
reason to deny the rectitude of property in 
land. It can never be pretended that the ex- 
isting titles to such property are legitimate. 



8 



Should any one think so, let him look in the 

chronicles. Violence, fraud, the prerogative of 

force, the claims of superior cunning ; these are 

the sources to which those titles may be traced. 

The original deeds were written with the sword 

rather than with the pen ; not lawyers, but 

soldiers, were the conveyancers ; blows were the 

current coin given in payment; and for seals, 

blood was used in preference to wax. Could 

valid claims be thus constituted ? Hardly ; and 

if not, what becomes of the pretensions of all 

subsequent holders of estates so obtained ?" 
***** 

'* We have nothing to do with considerations 
of conventional privilege, or legislative conve- 
nience. We have simply to inquire, what is the 
verdict given by pure equity in the matter? 
And this verdict enjoins a protest against every 
existing pretension to the individual possession 
of the soil ; and dictates the assertion that the 
right of mankind at large to the earth's surface 
is still valid ; all deeds, customs and laws not- 
withstanding." 

But landlords say that it would not be ex- 
pedient to change the custom of robbery to a 
system of justice. Before our forefathers strug- 
gled for independence, England said it was not 
expedient to deal justly with her American 
colonies ; but after wasting millions of treasure, 
and oceans of blood, she found it was expedient 
to grant them their independence. George Wash- 
ington and others, after gaining their own lib- 



erty, said it was not expedient to emancipate 
their slaves, but their descendants, after the 
slaughter of six hundred thousand soldiers, de- 
stroying their wealth, and filling the land with 
widows and orphans, reduced to extreme want 
and wretchedness, found it was expedient to al- 
low their slaves their freedom. 

Before the French revolution the rulers of 
France said that justice was not expedient ; but 
they soon found that it was expedient to have 
their heads rolling from the scaffold, and their 
streets drenched with blood. 

When the monopolists find themselves sur- 
rounded by an insane mob of men, transformed 
by oppression and hunger into bloodthirsty 
wretches, loaded with dynamite, and breathing 
destruction and death, changing palaces into 
slaughter houses, and filling the land with rivers 
of blood, they will then see that justice would 
have been expedient, as they can now see that 
only the methods that have been in accordance 
with justice have been expedient. 

There is no time to waste ; the air is vibrating 
with the dirge of death. 

It is only by the false hope of better times 
— that is no longer entertained — and the in- 
fluence of the most conservative of the laboring 
classes, that the storm has been stayed. 



10 



To-day, any smart, unscrupulous monster can 
enlist in the United States a million of deluded 
men to engage in a war for plunder, that would 
end in extermination. 

A single spark may light the flame that will 
destroy the nations of to-day, and cause the sun 
to go down in blood. 

It is a question of importance for society to 
decide what course to pursue in order that all 
may have an equal right to the use of land. 
"The greatest of them all," Henry George, sug- 
gests the abolition of all other taxes, and to tax 
land its full rent value. Undoubtedly this is the 
most simple and easy method ; would cause the 
least disturbance, and would be very nearly in 
accordance with justice. 

Though no one can dispute the wisdom and 
logic of Henry George, yet I think his great 
heart and the fear of causing some one incon- 
venience, sometimes leads him to be too conser- 
vative. 

I think the land question should be settled 
strictly according to equity. The landlords are 
not entitled to any more consideration than 
others, and if they are allowed to keep all their 
portable property, and have an equal chance with 
others to lease land from the Government, they 
ought to be satisfied. 



II 



I think the best melhod for society to resume 
its natural right to the use of land, would be to 
lease all land in city and country for a year, or 
a term of years, in quantities to suit, to the 
highest bidders, regardless of buildings or other 
improvements ; and if any one should hire land 
upon which there were improvements, he should 
pay the owner of the same a fair price or rent for 
his outlay. 

After paying the expense of the Government 
out of the money raised for the use of land, the 
surplus should be divided equally between every 
native, or naturalized man, woman and child in 
the community ; this would be exact justice. 
Those that occupied land would pay only the 
market value, and those that occupied none 
would receive their share of the market price for 
the use of it. This is the usual business method 
that is, and always has been pursued between 
partners owning equal interests in land or other 
property. For example : 

Two partners own equal interests in an estate, 
and if by mutual consent one occupies the whole, 
he must pay the other for the use of his share. 
If each occupies an equal share there is nothing 
to pay, unless they employ an agent to take care 
of their interests, as the people employ an agent 
— the Government to take care of their interests. 



12 



Then ihey must pay an equal share of the tax to 
the agent for his services. So if the land was 
equally divided between all the people, the tax 
should be equal ; but as an equal division of land 
would not be desirable, or feasible, each should 
be taxed in proportion to the value of the land 
each occupied. This method of taxation would 
accord with the principle expressed in these 
words : *' Render unto Caesar the things that 
are Csesar's ; and unto God the things that are 
God's." 

Taking a superficial glance at the question 
of taxation, a person might ask, why not tax the 
land just enough to pay the expense of the 
Government ? The answer is : only those oc- 
cupying the land would derive any benefit from 
ii; ; as in the case I have just cited of the two 
partners. If the one that occupied the estate 
was taxed just enough to pay the agent, the 
other would receive nothing ; so if the land was 
taxed just enough to pay the expense of the 
Government, capitalists would be enabled to be- 
come monopolists, by hiring nearly all the land, 
and charging enormous rent, thus robbing, or 
depriving others of its use. On the other hand, 
if land was taxed its full rent value no one could 
afford to pay the tax, unless he used the land. 
If city land, he must build on it. If country 



13 



land, he must employ labor to cultivate it, and 
the demand for labor would furnish employment 
for all, and force wages up to their real vahie. 
Even this wonld be the result if one man hired 
all the land, for then the laborers would receive, 
in addition to their wages, their share of the 
surplus derived from the land tax. 

The objection is often raised, that land would 
not be improved by the erection of buildings, if 
the land could only be hired from the Govern- 
ment. This objection can be answered by ask- 
ing this question : What difference can it make 
to any man, as far as security for improvement 
is concerned, whether he hires land from an in- 
dividual landlord or from the Government ? 

Nearly all the land in Europe, and much in 
this country, is improved by men wlio lease it 
from landlords, and many of the finest buildings 
in all large cities have been built on leased land, 
at the expense of parties who never expected to 
own the land on which they built. 

The result, on a small scale, of holding land 
as private property can be illustrated as follows : 
A. and B. are the only inhabitants of an island, 
the right of each to the land being equal. 13. 
sells out his interest to A. ; then A. says to B. : "All 
this land belongs to me and you have no right 
here except by my permission ; if you remain here 



H 



you must pay my price for the use of standing 
room, but as I am a just man, I will let you have 
the use of land enough to stand upon until 
morning for the money I have just paid you 
for your share of the land." B. sees the jus- 
tice of the offer ; pays the price, and remains 
until morning. As his lease has then expired 
he goes to A. and asks for work. A. says : " Go 
to work, cultivate the soil, and I will give you 
enough to eat, and no more. If you live on 
my land, you must consider me as your mas- 
ter, and hereafter when we meet you must take 
off your hat, make a bow, and address me as 
My Lord." Now B. is an abject slave, and all 
laborers in all thickly populated countries are in 
the same condition. Though B. might have had 
the right to sell his inheritance and become a 
slave, should he have had children he could have 
no right to sell their natural inheritance — an 
equal right to the land, as the inheritance of 
future generations. If he be allowed that right, 
then Alexander the Great, or any other one of 
the conquerors of the earth might have sold or 
given away the whole world to one man, and 
he and his descendants would have a right to hold 
all the rest of the people in bondage until the 
end of time. 



The Result, Under British Rule, of Hold- 
ing Lands as Private Property. 

IMacaulay says : " Enormous fortunes were 
rapidly accumulated at Calcutta, while millions 
of human beings were reduced to the extremity 
of wretchedness. They had been accustomed 
to live under tyranny, but never under tyranny 
like this. It resembled the government of evil 
genii rather than the government of human 
tyrants." 

Previous to the occupation of India by the 
English the people were robbed twice a year, by 
bands of native soldiers marching through the 
country, and taking all the portable property 
that they could find ; but by this method of rob- 
bery they could not stop production and con- 
sumption, and cause starvation, as the English 
were enabled to do, by appropriating the land 
and establishing a high tariff. 

If the Irish and English tenants were only 
robbed twice a year of their all, they would be 
much better off than they are at present. They 
would as soon think of eating a child as to eat 
anything that their landlords will take for 
rent. 

Of Ireland, Henry George says : " Even dur- 
ing the famine, grain, and meat, and butter, and 
cheese were carted for exportation along roads 
lined with the starving, and past trenches into 



i6 



which the dead were piled. It went, not as an 
exchange, but as a tribute to pay the rent of ab- 
sentee landlords ; a levy wrung from producers 
by those who in no wise contributed to produc- 
tion. Had this food been left with those who 
raised it, etc., there would have been enough to 
support in bounteous comfort the largest popu- 
lation Ireland ever had." 

But with all her wretchedness, Ireland can 
still boast of the purity of her wives and daughters. 
To see the extreme effect of oppression and deg- 
radation, we must go to England. There, in the 
agricultural districts, the tenants are forced to 
live in the most extreme poverty, and when they 
are no longer able to work are sent to the 
workhouse to be tortured and starved. 

John Ruskin, in a lecture delivered at Cam- 
berwell, said : " Within ten years of the passing 
of the Poor Law Act we hear of the paupers in 
the Andover Union gnawing the scraps of putrid 
flesh, and sucking the marrow from the bones of 
horses, which they were employed to crush." 

Their daughters are compelled to submit to 
the demands of the lords of the soil, or are kid- 
napped and carried to London for the use of 
Queen John's licentious curs. (Queen Victoria, 
I mean ; I think she was not legally married to 
John Brown.) 

You may say it is not so in this country; but 
the inevitable result must be the same if the 



1/ 



present system of holding land as private prop- 
erty is continued. Our land laws are essentially 
the same as theirs; English capitalists already 
hold 20,000,000 acres of our best land, and un- 
less there is a change in the programme, in a 
few years they will hold 20,000,000 of ""Free '* 
American citizens in bondage. 

The Government has given 100,000,000 acres 
to railroads, and American capitalists have 
bought 80,000,000 of acres more. AH the land 
that is near a market, or is worth cultivating, is 
already monopolized. 

Rev. J. Hyatt Smith, in a sermon recently de- 
livered in Brooklyn, said : " The powers of aris- 
tocracy and centralization seem to be gaining 
every day. Those vast estates in the West seem 
to be preparing for little dukedoms, such as are 
the bane of Europe to-night. 

"In the most interesting interview I ever had 
Alexander Stevens said that the greatest danger 
of the Republic was monopoly ; then he added, in 
tones of great solemnity, ' I hope that question 
will be settled by the ballot, but I fear it will 
have to be settled by the bullet.' " 



i8 



The Cause of Stagnation in Trade. 

Under-production always causes stagnation in 
trade ; if all men were constantly employed at 
fair wages they would never cease buying ; 
therefore, the producers would furnish a demand 
as long as any one desired more wealth. There 
may be, and often is, relative over-production in 
some branch of industry, but it is caused by 
under-production in some other industry. This 
could soon be adjusted by reducing the price of 
any article that has a slow sale, instead of reduc- 
ing wages, or discharging labor. This would 
keep out competition, for capital and labor seek- 
ing employment would be obliged to engage in 
some other industry ; but if wages were reduc- 
ed in proportion to the reduction in the price of 
produce, the profit remaining the same, compe- 
tition would keep up a relative over-production. 
My argument is as much in favor of capital as 
labor. Bar out monopoly, and there never was, 
and never can be, any conflict between capital 
and labor. They are twin brothers. They are 
one. What is for the interest of one is for the 
interest of the other. This is proved by the fact 
that, without any exception, in every country 
interest and wages have always risen and fallen 
together. 



19 



Capital is accumulated labor. A machine that 
assists in producing wealth is as much a laborer 
as the man that feeds the machine. If wages 
are low and profits are high in any industry, other 
capital will step in and employ more labor, and 
competition for labor will force wages up to 
their real value. It is an axiom that under-pro- 
duction must cause poverty, and that there can- 
not be over-production until the wants of all are 
supplied. 

If the time ever comes when there is more 
wealth produced than any one wants, it will be 
very easy to remedy the evil by destroying the 
surplus. If any one claims that an enormous 
production of the necessaries of life can cause 
want among men, he must admit that they have 
less intelligence than pigs. If pigs should have 
more food than they could consume, it might 
cause dyspepsia, but no pig would be stupid 
enough to die of starvation. 

Whatever is produced by labor that is of any 
use is just so much gain. Even if a man pro- 
duces what he does not want, and cannot sell, he 
is in the same condition that he would have been 
in if he had done nothing. He has only lost his 
time. 

High wages increase trade, and low wages 
diminish trade in proportion to the reduction. 



20 



This is as true as the law of gravitation, the 
law that forces water to seek its own level. 
Look at this from any standpoint, and take the 
trouble to think, and you will perceive that it is 
undeniable. If the whole world belonged to a 
few men ; and all the rest were forced to work 
for just food enough to keep them alive, it is 
evident that in a few days or a few weeks the 
masters would have all the wealth that they de- 
sired, for more wealth would cease to be wealth. 
What cannot be used and cannot be sold is not 
desired. 

The result must be an entire suspension of 
trade and manufacture. 

This has been the partial result and ruin of 
every nation that has continued the institution 
of chattel slavery. 

Every civilized nation now enforces a worse 
form of slavery by allowing land to be held as 
private property. 

The Southern planters, if they could, would not 
take their slaves back under the old conditions, 
when they can get either black or white labor 
much cheaper, taking into consideration lost 
time, the expense of keeping the young, the 
old and the feeble. Hunger is a better slave- 
driver than the lash. 

It is as true that a nation must die if its cir- 



21 



culation of wealth is stopped, as that a man 
must die if the circulation of his blood ceases, 
as that vegetation must die if the circulation of 
water is cut off. ^ If the sea should refuse to cir- 
culate its water, the land would become a barren 
waste, and all animal and vegetable life would 
cease to exist. 

We are not dead yet, but we are paralyzed. 
We are in about the same condition that vege- 
tation would be in if there was only a slight 
shower once in six months. 

Unless we change our course we shall soon 
be numbered with the civilizations of the past, 
all of which died of the same causes: extreme 
wealth and extreme poverty. 

According to the census return of 1880, there 
were only about one-third of the population of 
the United States engaged in any occupation. 
This estimate includes industrial, professional, 
personal, mercantile, and every other occupation. 
At the present time there is not more than one- 
fourth employed. Therefore, each man that 
works must provide for himself and three pau- 
pers. If these idlers could be starved or killed, 
and skinned for their hides, or sold for dissection, 
as they were in the Tewksbury Alms House, and 
many other institutions in the United States, it 
would not be very expensive, but it is very 



22 



expensive to provide for some of our rich 

paupers. 

" Take what to you belongs, but take from none 
By greed, or force, or fraud, what is his own." 

General Grant, financially, did much better 
while he was employed by the Government 
than he did while he was in the tanning business. 
He received, and his wife now receives, the in- 
come on $250,000, subscribed mostly by monop- 
olists, who were enabled by the Grant ring to 
rob the people of hundreds of millions of dollars. 
Yet, after getting fleeced by a fishy game in Wall 
street, he was enabled, by the joint act of Arthur 
and Cleveland, to draw an additional sum of 
$13,500 yearly from the U. S. Treasury. 

It may seem cruel to tear the shroud from the 
dead. Christ said, *' Leave the dead to bury 
their own dead," but he never suggested that a 
public park should be used as a Potter's Field. 

If heroes would slaughter none but heroes, 
and hero-worshipers would bury them at their 
own expense, it would be their own affair ; but 
every dollar used for ostentatious display is 
drawn from the pockets of the laboring classes. 

No man has a right to what belongs to others. 
An agent has no right to do what his employer 
has no right to do. The Government is the 
agent of the people, employed by the people 



23 



for their mutual protection ; not to rob the 
treasury for the benefit of thieves or paupers. 
A man who, by the use of his hands or his 
brains, in any legitimate business, accumulates 
wealth, has an absolute right to that wealth, 
and if the idle vagabond or spendthrift is al- 
lowed to rob him of his wealth there will be 
no motive for saving, or reward for industry. 
The millionaire has as much right to his mil- 
lions, if he gained them by honest methods, 
as the pauper has to his poverty. And no one 
has a right to ask him for charity, or dictate to 
him how he shall use his wealth, as long as he 
does not use it for the injury of others, or take 
from him any part of it, except a fair share for 
the support of an economical Government for' 
the mutual protection of the rights and liberty 
of all. 



24 



No Need of Charity. 

It is very easy to dispose of the poor without 
charity, as has been proved by new settlements 
in all countries. All of the English colonies 
were settled by the poorer classes, yet as long as 
the land was free there was no need of charity. 
There were no tramps, beggars or thieves ; no 
poorhouses, jails or prisons, and no need of any. 
Even Australia, that was used as a penal colony, 
and settled by England's paupers, criminals, beg- 
gars and tramps, furnishes no exception. 

Crime, and the need of charity, always com- 
mences with land monopoly. The following ex- 
tract from Bradstreet's reports show how crim- 
inals and paupers thrive, if they have a square 
deal : 

*' Total foreign trade of the seven Australasian 
Colonies, for 1883, increased to $586,452,440. 
* * * * jj^ other words, the commerce of 
the United States increased two and one-eigth 
times in the twenty-eight years from 1857 to 1884, 
inclusive, while the Australasian foreign trade- 
increased nearly thirteen fold in the thirty-four 
years from 1850 to 1885, inclusive. * * * * 
This, surely, is a most extraordinary exhibit for 
a population that barely turned 3,000,000 of all 
ages and conditions. The industrial and com- 
mercial history of the world furnishes no parallel 
to it." 



25 



If the lowest and meanest of humanity have 
accomplished this under partial slavery, what 
need is there for charity if all could have 
their freedom ? With the exhaustless supplies of 
nature, and our wonderful labor-saving machin- 
ery, it is as easy for man to produce wealth as it 
was for God to produce light, or as it is for a Jer- 
sey swamp to produce mosquitoes. God said, 
" Let there be light, and there was light." The 
swamp says, *' Let there be mosquitoes, and 
there are mosquitoes." But man says, " Fence 
in the land, shut off the steam, close the factories, 
and stop production." The result is, want and 
starvation. 

In the largest cities there is much land that never 
has been occupied, and on which the taxes already 
paid have amounted to more than the land will 
sell for ; therefore it has been of no benefit to the 
"dog in the manger," but has prevented others 
from occuj^ying the land and producing wealth. 
It is true that this system of robbery has enabled 
the robbers to extort a large amount of wealth 
from the producers, but the advantage thus 
gained has been offset by discouraging industry, 
depriving many of the opportunity to work, 
checking trade, and reducing wages and interest. 

It will readily be conceded by every one who 
gives the subject proper consideration, that a 



26 



man can accumulate wealth much faster in a rich 
than in a poor community. That if all had equal 
rights, then the whole community would be very 
rich. 

The majority of the rich have had superior 
ability for accumulating wealth, or have had the 
advantage of a better start by inheriting wealth. 
If the rich, with the advantage of their ability or 
inheritance, had devoted their time to legitimate 
business with the same energy that they have to 
robbing and trampling upon others, they would 
have been as far ahead in the race as they now 
are, and all the others would have been well off. 

As proof of this : look at the careers of the first 
great Vanderbilt, Jay Gould, and other million- 
aires, that started without a dollar, and in one 
lifetime, by energy, perseverance and industry, 
have accumulated more wealth than all the gen- 
erations of Astors. I know it is the custom of the 
envious and ignorant to call all hard-working 
millionaires robbers and thieves, and no doubt 
they have been compelled by the rascality of 
judges and legislators to play " diamond cut 
diamond." Yet I think in the main they have 
acquired their wealth honestly, have developed 
the resources of the country, and furnished em- 
ployment to hundreds of thousands of people. 
Jay Gould and the Vanderbilts, especially, have 



27 



in their domestic relations set an example of vir- 
tue that the best may be proud to follow. Drive 
the land sharks off the land, and every man that 
has brains or rnuscle to sell can become a mil- 
lionaire. 

Remove the fear of poverty, and the insane 
desire for wealth will cease. A man would be 
as foolish to load himself with useless millions 
for a short journey through life as he would be to 
carry a barrel of provisions on his back for a 
day's journey to another settlement. 

The tariff swindle in its injurious effect upon 
labor and capital is only one grade below land 
robbery. The manufacturers virtually said to 
their employees, '' If you will vote for high tariff 
it will keep out foreign competition and enable 
us to cheat all of our patrons by charging a third 
more than our goods are worth, and we will 
divide the profits thus dishonestly gained by pay- 
ing high wages." 

They did divide the profits, but not with labor. 
They divided with members of Congress to in- 
crease the duty. The laborers went with heart 
and hand into the dishonest scheme, and what 
was the result ? It enabled the manufacturers to 
charge exorbitant prices and accumulate enor- 
mous fortunes at the expense of the consumers. 
It enabled them to form combinations, to fix the 



28 



price of goods and the price of labor, to close 
their factories and hold goods for high prices. 

It enabled them to discharge American labor, 
and fill its place with foreign contract labor at 
starvation wages. When trade is dull with a 
merchant he makes it lively by reducing prices. 
Competition compels him to sell more goods at 
less profit. He cannot close his store and wait 
for high prices — they would never come. 

Without " protection " the same law of trade 
would apply to the manufacturers. Foreign com- 
petition would force him to keep his factory run- 
ing all the year round. 

Goods would be cheaper ; he could afford to 
sell for half the profit if he sold twice the 
amount, and he could sell twice the amount if 
he sold for half the profit. Wages would be 
higher, as there would be more demand for labor 
and steady employment. 

The whole system of tariff taxation is the 
most unequal and unjust that could be devised. 
The rates of duty on articles used mostly by the 
rich or poor will show this. I have picked out 
the most extreme rates, but any one can see by 
examining the whole table of the rates of duty, 
that it is so arranged as to throw the burden of 
taxation upon the poor classes. 

Duty on articles used mostly by the rich : 



29 



Per cent. 

Works of Art 30 

Cords, Braids, Gimps, etc 25 

Laces, etc.,, Linens 30 

Musical Instruments 25 

Braids, Trimmings, etc., for hats. 20 

Champagne and Sparkling Wines . . 57 

Jewelry 25 

Diamonds and precious stones .... 10 

Silk, manufactured 49 

Average rate 30 per cent. 

Duty on articles used mostly by the poor : 

Per cent. 

Rice. 104 

Salt 81 

Spirits, distilled from Grain 332 

Tobacco 70 

Cheroots 93 

Woolen Cloth, low grade 90 

Dress Goods, all wool 75 

Yarns, woolen 69 

Sugar 53 

Average rate 107 per cent. 

The rich are more likely to buy works of art, 
diamonds, jewelry, etc., than the poor. 

The poor are obliged to buy the necessaries of 



30 



life, and it is generally conceded that each should 
be taxed in proportion to his wealth A rich 
man may consume as much of the necessaries 
of life as a poor man, but the wealth is divided 
in the proportion of a thousand to one ; there- 
fore, in proportion to their wealth the poor pay a 
thousand dollars as often as the rich pay one 
dollar. 

I have been speaking only of the United States 
tax, which is nearly all derived from the duty on 
imports and the internal revenue tax, there being 
no tax on wealth. 

State revenue is nearly all raised by a tax on 
real estate ; but the landlords are enabled to 
saddle the most of it off onto the laboring classes 
by charging high rent. 

Look at this, as another sample of injustice. 
A man starts a National Bank with a capital of 
$100,000, and he deposits this amount in bonds 
with the Government, and receives $90,000 in 
bills, draws interest on all the bonds, pays no 
tax, and thus actually gets a bonus for carrying 
on his business. His neighbor goes into the im- 
porting business, with the same amount of capi- 
tal, and in order to be successful must turn his 
capital over four times a year. The average rate 
of duty is 42 per cent. ; therefore, he pays a tax 
of 1 1 68,000 a year for the privilege of using 



31 



$100,000, and this tax, with about 50 per cent, 
added, is eventually paid by the consumers. 

Is it any wonder that the people are crushed to 
the earth ? Could a race of Gods carry a load 
like this ? 

Labor unions and strikes never have, and 
never can, accomplish any permanent good. 
They are wrong, as they are essentially monopo- 
lies, and would deprive the individual members, 
and capital of independence and liberty. 

Even if they could get all they claim, as long 
as the land monopoly continued, there would 
still be many out of employment. No doubt high 
wages would revive trade and create a demand 
for more labor, but eventually the landlords 
would (by raising rent) derive all the benefit. 
Any scheme that is not in accordance with exact 
justice is not worthy of consideration. Two 
wrongs never make one right ; good never comes 
from evil. If a man attempts to strike you with 
a club, it is better to disarm him than to strike back. 
Take the land from its pretended owners, and 
the labor market will at once be relieved of sur- 
plus labor, and labor will receive its full rights. 

All that we have to do to change our hell into 
a paradise is to obey the moral law ; the law of 
nature ; the law of God. The whole law is ex- 
pressed in this one sentence : '* Render unto 



32 



Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and unto God 

the things that are God's." 

" Shall we in presence of this grievous wrong. 
In this supremest moment of all time, 
Stand trembling, cowering, when with one bold stroke, 
These groaning millions might be ever free?" 

The following quotations are from the writings 
of some of the wisest men that this earth has 
ever produced : * 

Herbert Spencer (*' Social Statics," Chapter 
IV.), in speaking of man's freedom, says : " He 
must be free to do everything which is directly 
or indirectly requisite for the due satisfaction of 
every mental and bodily want. Without this he 
cannot fulfill his duty or God's will. But if he 
cannot fulfill God's will without it, then God 
commands him to take it." 

*' The end of all political associations is the pre- 
servation of the natural and imprescriptible rights 
of man, and these rights are liberty, property, 
security, and resistance of oppression.^' — Nation- 
al Assembly of France, 1789. 

" Look you ; there is a people and there is a 
world ; and yet the people have no inheritance 
and the world is a desert. Give them to each 
other and you make them happy at once. * * * 
Only find the man that really wants a plot of 
land, and then say to him, ' Take it ; the land is 
yours ; take it and cultivate it.' -^ * * Let 
us learn to wish to benefit all men. Then every- 
thing will be changed ; truth will reveal itself ; 



33 



the beautiful will arise ; the supreme law will be 
fulfilled, and the world shall enter upon a per- 
petual fete day." — Victor Hugo. 

'* We hold these truths to be self evident — 
that all men are created equal ; that they are en- 
dowed by their Creator with certain inalienable 
rights ; that among these are life, liberty and the 
pursuit of happiness ; that to secure these rights 
Governments are instituted among men deriving 
their just powers from the consent of the 
governed ; that whenever any form of Govern- 
ment becomes destructive of these ends, it is the 
right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and 
to institute a new Government, laying its found- 
ation on such principles, and organizing its powers 
in such form as shall seem to them most likely to 
effect their safety and happiness." — American 
Declaration of Independence. 

*' Let us consider the matter. The equal, 
natural and unalienable right to life, liberty and 
the pursuit of happiness, does it not involve the 
right of each to the free use of his powers in 
making a living for himself and his family, 
limited only by the equal right of all others .^ 
Does it not require that each shall be free to 
make, to save and to enjoy what wealth he may 
without interference with the equal rights of 
others ; that no one shall be compelled to give 
forced labor to another, or to yield up his earn- 
ings to another ; that no one shall be permitted 
to extort from another labor or earnings .-^ All 
this goes without the saying. Any recognition 
of the equal right to life and liberty which would 



34 



deny the right to property— the right of a man lo 
his labor would be mockery." — Henry George 
(Social Problems, page io6). 

Obey only the laws of God ; all other laws 
should be abolished; they are engines of destruc- 
tion and oppression. 

Any man that thinks he can improve on the 
laws of God is too far advanced to be of service 
to any one in this world. The best thing such a 
man can do is to build a world of his own, and 
make laws to govern it ; then, if it is better than 
this world would be if the laws of God were 
obeyed, he should be appointed by the Supreme 
God as law-maker for the universe. 

Any one that encroaches upon the rights of 
another should have an immediate trial by a 
jury selected at random, Judge Equity and Judge 
Lynch presiding, and from the verdict there 
should be no appeal. As Judges Equity and 
Lynch are ready at all times and places to open 
court, it would be convenient, and as they never 
receive fee or reward no one can doubt their 
disinterestedness and impartiality. 

Would it not be more manly to abolish all 
government, and, if necessary, let each man con- 
vert his house into a fort, and himself into a 
walking arsenal, and fight for his rights, than to 
be continually robbed by the rapacious monster 



35 



called Government, and have his wife and chil- 
dren crowded into a filthy tenement house, and 
see them dressed in rags, and hear them cry for 
bread until the good angel Death, in his infinite 
mercy, relieves them of their sufferings? 

But it is not necessary to resort to arms. 

The laboring classes m this or any other 
country can take peaceable possession of their 
natural inheritance (an equal right to the earth's 
surface) v/ithout violence or bloodshed. Two 
thousand English landlords claim nearly all 
the land in England. What could they do 
against 30,000,000 of people if they were united, 
and resolved to have their rights ? If any were 
insane enough to oppose them it would only be 
necessary to put them into straight jackets until 
they came to their senses. 



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